Mr Horrocks came under fire in his former role as BBC2' s Newsnight editor - for demanding an end to the programme's aggressive dealings with ministers shortly after Labour came to office in 1997.

At the time, he told Newsnight staff 'the model of the five years of Tory coverage must be thrown away', leading to fears he was giving the Blair government special treatment.

In yesterday's speech given at Oxford University, Mr Horrocks said: 'The days of middle-of-the-road, balancing Left and Right, impartiality are dead.

'I believe we need to consider adopting what I like to think of as a much wider "radical impartiality" - the need to hear the widest range of views - all sides of the story.

'We need more Taliban interviews, more BNP interviews - of course put on air with due consideration and the full range of moderate opinions.'

He warned viewers: 'So get used to hearing more views that you dislike on our airwaves.'

The proposals raise the prospect of the BBC running reports of the deaths of British solders in Iraq and Afghanistan and then including comments from the Taliban or Iraqi insurgents about why their deaths were justified. Another possible outcome would see BBC reporters getting comment from terrorist supporters in the wake of events such as the 7/ 7 bombings.

Critics accused the corporation of throwing traditional British values of mainstream moderate opinion out of the window with a misguided sense of 'balance'.

Phil Woolas the minister for community cohesion and a former BBC producer, branded Mr Horrocks' plans 'dangerous'.

He said: 'Their job is to give a microphone to credible organisa-tions and people and to test those views against reality.

'Their role is not to take extremist views from the Right and Left and present them as balanced. That way lies madness.'

Conservative MP Philip Davies, who sits on the Commons culture select committee said: 'I don't think the BBC should be a platform for people to spout hatred against this country.' Another Tory MP, Greg Hands, accused the BBC of pursuing 'shock-jock journalism', adding: 'I don't think that's how licence fee payers want their money spent.'

Last month, the corporation was accused of broadcasting enemy propaganda after Newsnight ran interviews with Taliban members, who vowed to fight British troops 'to the death'.

Before that, Radio 4' s flagship Today programme gave 12 minutes of airtime to a Muslim extremist.

Reg Keys, whose son Tom was killed in Iraq in 2003, said: 'This is political correctness gone insane.'

Last night, a BBC spokesman said: 'The context of Peter's speech was the BBC's responsibilities of providing a universal service while British society is becoming increasingly fragmented.

'He calls for a more rounded view of impartiality, a need to hear the widest range of views if we're to maintain that universality.'